It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Miguel plunged from the ninth floor of a building while under the care of his mother’s white employer
Posted 22 June 2020 A protester holds a sign saying ‘what if it was the employer’ son?
Justice for Miguel. Image: Mídia NINJA/CC BY-NC 2.0
On June 2, Mirtes de Souza, a domestic worker at an upper-class family home in the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife, brought her 5-year-old son Miguel to her workplace. While nurseries and schools have been shut in Recife since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mirtes wasn't granted time off by her employers.T
That day, Mirtes asked her white boss to mind Miguel while she went out to walk the house dog. When she came back, she found her son on the ground floor of the building after an apparent fall. Miguel was taken to the hospital alive, but didn't survive.
CCTV images obtained by the police later showed Mirtes’ boss, Sari Côrte Real, placing Miguel into an elevator by himself, and pressing the button to one of the top floors of the building. Images then show Miguel leaving the elevator on the ninth floor where, authorities later deduced, he climbed an unprotected gallery with air-conditioners, and fell.
Côrte Real was arrested and charged with manslaughter but released after paying a 20,000 BRL bail (around 4,000 US dollars). Police says it's investigating the possibility that Miguel was pushed from the ninth floor.
In the wake of George Floyd's protests in Brazil, the case sparked outrage on social media, with many considering Miguel's death yet another example of the racism Brazil's black citizens endure.
When local media avoided releasing Sari's name and photos (social media users eventually uncovered them), Mirtes gave an interview to TV Globo that went viral:
If it was me, my face would be on the front pages, as I’ve seen happening many times on TV. My name would be on the headlines and my face would be everywhere. But hers can’t be in the media, it can’t be made public. (…) I hope that justice is served, because if it was the other way around, I think I wouldn’t even have the right to post bail. A life is gone, because of a lack of patience. To leave a child on their own, in an elevator, you can’t do that. A child that was entrusted to her. Brazil's racism
Miguel's story quickly became national news. Many have seen it as a symbol of the worst in Brazil, especially its systemic racism against black citizens.
Brazil forcibly brought around 5 million Africans to work as slaves in a period spanning 400 years — over ten times more than the United States. Brazil was also the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery (in 1888).
But Miguel's death was also a reminder of Brazil's rampant corruption and inequality, and how both have been exacerbated in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mirtes had no choice but to keep working during the pandemic in order to provide for her family. She wasn't an exception: The first COVID-19 death registered in Rio de Janeiro, in March, was of a domestic worker who was also impeded to quarantine by her employer.
In an interview, Mirtes said that she, her mother, and her son Miguel all had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19's virus), but their symptoms were mild.
Meanwhile, Mirtes’ employer Sari, a white woman living in one of the wealthiest areas of Recife, was a member of a traditional political family in the state of Pernambuco. Sari's husband, Sérgio Hacker, is the mayor of Tamandaré, a small town 100 km away from Recife to where Mirtes says she was frequently brought over by the family.
WE WANT JUSTICE FOR MIGUEL! In Recife, protesters make an intervention in front of the place where Miguel died, the luxury condo known as Twin Towers. 20,000 is the life of a poor black child and a mother's pain.
Miguel’s death sparked protests in the streets of Recife and on social media. The building where it happened made it even more symbolic to activists: its construction has been marred in controversy as it's located in a protected historical area.
On June 5, dozens of protesters, alongside Miguel’s family, marched towards the buildings, where Corte Real and her family lives. People laid down on the street to remember how the child died.
“I want my mother”, protesters today in Recife, in memory and asking for justice to little Miguel, age 5.
Miguel's death was also remembered in Brazil's protests against racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd in the United States and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Another case remembered at the protests was of João Pedro, a black 14-year-old killed by the police inside his own home in Rio de Janeiro on May 18.
A collective of daughters and sons of domestic workers, created in March to ask for social isolation rights for their parents, published a note reminding that what happened to Miguel could have happened to any of them:
What happened with Miguel, 5 years-old, opened wide the INEQUALITY, RACISM, CLASSISM. The denied right for isolation that are mothers are facing. How many of us died in the big house? How many will have to die in the buildings until something is done?
Justin Trudeau in a federal election campaign appearance in September 2019, addressing accusations that he habitually wore blackface until at least his early thirties. The Trudeau Liberals did not lose the election and were able to form a minority government. Screencap from NBC News official YouTube channel.
The United States is going through a tough period right now. Mass demonstrations and protests against deep-rooted racism and police brutality that are met with even more racism and police brutality. An economy that has been shut down by a pandemic that has annihilated millions of jobs. An incompetent response by authorities to COVID-19 that has shut down entire cities, and is now seeing wave after relentless wave of new infections and mortality all across the country.
And, above all else, an unstable president who threatens to inflict yet more violence, chaos, and death on Americans.
Thanks to this daily cascade of grim news, some Americans friends have turned their gaze northward to my country, Canada. For many Americans, it seems, Canada is a fantasy realm of kindness and good manners, a sexy, country-size Portlandia minus the whimsically giant donuts and the Klan, or an Austin, Texas without tacos or open carry.
On June 11, after nearly two weeks of unrelenting police violence against citizens peacefully protesting the killing of George Floyd and in support of Black lives, the Daily Show released a comedy segment in which Americans pleaded with Canada to invade the US and restore order to the country. By mid-June, the hashtag #InvadeUsCanada was trending on Twitter.
“Compared to the gong show that is the United States, Canada is pretty amazing,” is the kind of thing my Americans friends typically say in these COVID-19 times.
My response?
When it comes to racism, the United States is far more progressive than Canada. At least Americans can talk about race. In Canada, thanks to our reputation as “a really nice apartment over a meth lab”, race is almost never part of our national conversation, making racism much more dangerous.
In fact, in a national dialogue dominated by a literal sock puppet, it's not unusual for Canadians to deny racism exists here. Earlier in June, as the protests spread throughout cities in the United States, a prominent media personality, writing in The National Post, one of Canada's two ailing national dailies, stated that Canada is not a racist country. After a “newsroom revolt,” the Post's opinions editor claimed that the column was the result of an editorial “miscommunication.” The story is still live on the National Post website, with a clarification note added at the top.
However, this was not the first time in just the past year that, following a newsroom revolt, a Canadian media outlet has explained away the publication of racist commentary. The problem is, racism in the media is not limited to these high-profile cases. Some commentators are wondering why journalists don't speak up more when racist columns appear in print as a matter of course.
Instances of overt racism in Canadian newsrooms are often explained away as simple mistakes. In June, when Wendy Mesley, an influential CBC media personality, admitted to using the “n-word” during an editorial discussion (as is usual in Canada, the specifics of the incident have not been made public), the excuse she gave is that she was quoting a Black interviewee.
By claiming to have been repeating one of us, she is pushing responsibility for her comments onto us, and doubling down on her racist conduct by refusing to truly own it […] Black journalists are not responsible for Wendy Mesley’s racism, and we are outraged that she is trying to use us as cover for her own choices.
The silencing of Black and minority voices in Canada is not unusual. In 2017, Desmond Cole himself was essentially forced to quit his freelancing gig at the Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper in terms of circulation, because of his activism about carding (random street checks by police) and other issues. As the Wendy Mesley story broke, journalists such as BuzzFeed's Scaachi Koul shared stories about how they had been blacklisted by CBC for voicing opinions or have been continually mistaken for other non-white coworkers by colleagues and managers.
Others, such as CBC reporter Angela Sterritt, reported experiencing “lateral violence” from fellow journalists. Some journalists have quit:
One. Hundred. Percent.
Codes of conduct often serve – purposefully or not – to silence marginalized journalists. https://t.co/hVMazD95NC
It's no wonder, then, that Canadian media is largely silent when it comes to covering racism and colonial violence. For instance, it took a foreign media outlet, the Guardian, to break the story that Canadian police were prepared to shoot Indigenous activists who were trying to protect traditional lands from a pipeline project.
This month, white, privileged commentators and people in positions of power have been arguing whether or not systemic racism in exists in Canada even as cruel, tragic examples of police brutality were exposed on an almost daily basis. The alleged chasing down and subsequent beating of an Indigenous man by an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is just one of several allegations of police misconduct in the far northern territory of Nunavut. In Alberta, dashcam footage was released that showed RCMP officers violently assaulting a prominent First Nations leader. In the same week, police in New Brunswick shot dead two Indigenous people.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March, Canada's police forces have killed more Indigenous people than COVID-19, according to entrepreneur and writer Robert Jago.
So, as The Daily Show was encouraging Americans to share the patronizing hashtag #InvadeUsCanada against the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the U.S. and Canada, racialized communities in Canada endured brutal violence, and Canadians themselves finally started to talk about and address race, and even about defunding the police.
It must be said, however, that Black journalists, activists and regular Canadian citizens have long struggled to fight for justice and to focus attention on the discrimination that Black Canadians and other people of colour experience in Canada. For example, Edmonton resident Bashir Mohamed, in his spare time, has persuaded a local school board to apologize to a Black student for racial discrimination. Mohamed has also shared his own experiences growing up Black in Edmonton and has brought to light the Alberta capital city's historical ties to the Ku Klux Klan.
Many others have worked hard to ensure Canada's Black history is not erased. In Vancouver in mid-June, Black Lives Matter activists occupied two viaducts that were all that remained of the city's plans fifty years ago to build elevated highways throughout Vancouver. The plans were foiled back then, but not before Vancouver's historic Black community of Hogan's Alley was demolished, and its residents displaced. The Hogan's Alley Society is now campaigning to have the viaduct lands placed into trust.
By treating my country as a cute and cuddly stuffed animal of a nation that is just “better” than the United States, users of the #InvadeUSCanada are effectively silencing Black, Indigenous and other voices in Canada. And they're enabling a typically Canadian sense of smug superiority over our American neighbours.
Most of all, they're helping perpetuate white supremacism in Canada, and an ongoing harmful legacy of violent colonialism that continues to this day.
Police killings in T&T have increased by 86 percent this year
Posted 30 June 2020 Screenshot of a video shared via WhatsApp and broadcast in a TTT Live Online video, showing police officers returning fire against protestors in east Port of Spain, Trinidad, on June 30, 2020.
On Saturday, June 27, hours after police officer Allen Moseley was shot dead in Morvant, a depressed area in the east of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago's capital, officers from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service's (TTPS) Guard and Emergency Branch—the unit in which Moseley served—went into the district and killed three men.
The police claim they were fired upon by the occupants of a vehicle, but security camera footage of the incident circulating via WhatsApp shows at least one of the men raising his arms in surrender.
Following the deaths of the three men, who have since been identified as Noel Diamond, Joel Jacobs, and Israel Clinton, protests erupted in the Morvant area on June 29. Residents blocked the road, burned tyres and other debris, and compared the deaths of the three men to the murder of George Floyd.
Clinton, who was acquitted of theft charges laid against him a few years ago, was suing the state for police brutality over a related beating incident that left him in hospital for weeks.
Lawyers representing the families of two of the deceased referred to their deaths as “extra-legal,” “arbitrary” and “summary executions,” and demanded that the officers involved be suspended from duty while the investigation takes place, a call that was echoed by at least one newspaper editorial and the NGO Womantra.
Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith and Alan Miguel, Chief Investigator at the Police Complaints Authority, the statutory body charged with independently investigating complaints against the TTPS, stated that an investigation the killings had been launched, but on the morning of June 30 the protestscontinued, blocking main transportation routes in and out of the capital city as people processed through the streets demanding justice and chanting “Don't shoot!”
Some demonstrations reportedly turned violent; at least one video shared on social media channels showed protestors shooting at the police and officers returning fire. A third-floor window at the attorney general's office was shot at. Protest actions also mushroomed, spreading to areas outside of the capital.
At about 11 am on June 30, Minister of National Security Stuart Young held a press conference in which he stated that community residents were being paid to cause civil unrest. He suggested that citizens should consider “who stands to gain” in such circumstances, making the point that “criminal elements are not always who we call gang members”. Protestors have refuted claims of payment.
One aspiring politician, Fuad Abu Bakr, son of Yasin Abu Bakr, the leader of the insurgents who staged an unsuccessful coup d'etat in 1990, was arrested, allegedly for disturbing the peace. Trinidad and Tobago is scheduled to hold general elections later this year.
The unrest was quelled by the authorities shortly after noon Trinidad time (UTC−04:00) on June 30, but the online discussion continued.
Youth activist and law student Kareem Marcelle, who has been advocating for justice in the deaths of three men, condemned the violent protests, explaining that responding to acts of illegality with other acts of illegality is counterproductive. In a public Facebook post, he pleaded:
Personally, I don’t support not encourage violent or destructive Protests! I’m begging y’all let’s not take away from what we want! We need Public Support for this! We can’t hurt nor distress the very same people we want to support our Cause! Let your voices be heard but PLEASE operate within the confines of the LAW! Don’t defeat the Purpose PLEASE! Right now the families are cooperating with our Legal Team, the PCA and the TTPS! Let’s not mess this up! Justice have to and will be served! #MorvantBlackLivesMatter
The unrest is also happening against a disturbing backdrop: over the past year, police killings in Trinidad and Tobago have increased by a startling 86 percent, with 43 people shot dead by police officers so far this year. Facebook user Terry-ann Roy was disturbed by the statistics:
Yal sharing a pic of one of the victims with a gun as if that negates the fact that we have a thing called DUE PROCESS and that the police aren't judge jury and executioners! All that shows is you have no understanding of what justice means. #morvantblacklivesmatter
Once you’re a young black man from a ‘Hotspot’ and you’re killed by Police Officers; there are many persons in society that AUTOMATICALLY Presumed that: 1. You’re a Criminal 2. Police deserve to kill you 3. Police are always right 4. Your life don’t matter 5. You’re Guilty by default You know what is the WORST part of it all? Many times its our OWN Black Brothers and Sisters pushing this agenda! And THAT is PRECISELY why many Police Officers feel as if they a Judge, Jury and Executioner! YOU Empower them when you defend their Actions!
One Twitter post attempted to explain why the protests were happening:
Still, many social media users remained at opposite ends of the divide:
Riots are the language of the unheard.
We expect the police to treat them like human beings BECAUSE they ARE human beings.
Stop policing the people who are the victims of police brutality and instead police the actual police. It's their actions under scrutiny… Not protestors.
While attorney Justin Phelps suggested that the response “needs to be far broader than the investigation of the one shooting”, Minister Young has tried to focus on the “robust” investigatory process of the PCA even as businesses in and around the capital city made the decision to close early, and the US Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago issued a security alert related to “civil unrest”.
Adding fuel to the fire was yet another police killing, this time of a woman in the disadvantaged area of Beetham Gardens. The incident sparked fresh protests in the presence of police officers. The police service put out a press statement shortly thereafter:
The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) wishes to assure the public that the well-orchestrated plan to destabilize the country by a few, has been quelled. So far, 72 persons have been arrested, and others are expected to be charged when investigations are completed.
There has been one casualty — a woman — and investigations are underway to determine the cause of her death.
Intelligence has revealed that this was an orchestrated plan that was led by several gang members, whereby the intention was to use the shooting of the three young men a few days ago, as a front to cover the planned plot to shut down the country.
Amid some public scepticism over the alleged destabilisation plan, the release also stated that the police force remains on high alert, with the nation being kept “under heavy police surveillance” for the next 48 hours. Written byJanine Mendes-Franco
Rubber bullets, the arrest of the son of a prominent Imam, and the burning of tyres and debris throughout a number of communities. Those events occurred just after 9am on Tuesday when protestors in Beetham, Sea Lots and Morvant staged protests to voice their anger over the killing of three men from Morvant on Saturday. The residents also held a protest in Morvant on Monday, accusing the police of assassinating the men, and called on the Commissioner of Police to intervene.
"Time for these monuments to meet the sledgehammer of justice"
Posted 11 June 2020 The statue of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, which stands near the entrance to Bridgetown, the Barbadian capital. Photo by Nick Kocharhook on Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests have seen a global resurgence following the killing of George Floyd, an African American, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States.
One ripple effect of the protests has been the denigration and defacement of symbols of black oppression. The Caribbean, with its long history of occupation, has its own symbols of oppression to reconsider.
In Richmond, Virginia, on June 2, hundreds of protestors assembled in front of the statue of General Robert E. Lee, a American Civil War Confederate general, shouting, “Tear it down!” The state's governor, Ralph Northam, announced that the statue of Lee would be removed; the process has since been blocked by a court order.
On June 7, United Kingdom protestors tore down a statue of Bristol slave trader Edward Colston and stomped on it before throwing it into the harbour. A statue of slave trader Robert Milligan was also retired in front of the West India Docks in London.
Some have supported the symbolic act of reclaiming dignity and exposing long-celebrated racists, while others have condemned this method of protest.
In the Caribbean, calls to rename certain places have surged. King George V Park in Port of Spain, Trinidad, for instance, is also called Nelson Mandela Park. However, statuary has largely remained.
Most regional territories have robust examples of public art that honour the slave struggle, including Bussa, who led the largest slave rebellion in the history of Barbados; Cuffy, the leader of a 2,500-strong slave revolt in Guyana; and the “Redemption Song” statue at Jamaica's Emancipation Park, but there are also myriad examples of statues that reinforce the tainted narrative of discovery and ownership.
Several Caribbean nations are challenging the wisdom of having such statuary on public display. Feminist and university lecturer Gab Hosein observed on Facebook:
I don’t think there has been a global uprising of this geographical scope and diversity since the 1970s. […] Sparked by the BLM movement in the US and now expanded into decolonial struggle and dismantling racism more broadly, it does seem like — for almost the first time in 50 years — we are listening to another world breathing.
In Martinique, where a statue of French abolitionist Victor Schoelcher was toppled, two of the young women involved explained their decision in a YouTube video:
We, the young people of Martinique, are sick and tired of being surrounded by symbols that insult us. We were not the first to attack these symbols. Many before us have tried in vain to get rid of them […]
What is a statue? It is stating this is someone we admire for the impact he or she has had in the course of our history. […] Schoelcher was in favour of the compensation of the plantation owners; there are many transcripts proving that claim. If he had not, maybe it would have been different.
As the pair pointed out, the discussion is not new.
Barbadians, for instance, have been agitating for the removal of a statue of Horatio Nelson for decades. In 2017, Sir Hilary Beckles, vice-chancellor of The University of the West Indies and chairman of the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) Reparations Committee, referred to Nelson as “a vile, racist, white supremacist [who] disposed of black people, and dedicated his political and military life to the cause of protecting Britain’s criminal possession of the 800,000 enslaved Africans held during his lifetime.”
In the wake of Floyd's horrific murder, the discussion around such monuments has grown more urgent.
There are currently several online petitions circulating in the region, including the Barbadian thrust to do away with Nelson's presence in the nation's capital.
Artist Annalee Davis, who shared the petition, noted:
[…] while I don't think to destroy the statue of Nelson is useful, I do think that relocating it to the museum or somewhere outside of National Heroes Square is viable and worth a national discussion. It is no longer called Trafalgar Square and he is not a hero. Wherever his statue is relocated to, it should include complete signage to clearly demonstrate who he was, what he did and his role in the colonial machinery that oppressed people.
In response to a commenter who challenged the idea of taking down the statuary with a “Where will it end?” argument, Davis clarified:
I don't believe that our tourism product should only tell the story from the perspective of those who enslaved people. There is a term being used around the world called ‘dark tourism’ and this is used in places like Auschwitz for example, to speak about concentration camps and tell the uncomfortable narratives that we want to turn away from. The statue of Christopher Columbus which sits on the entrance steps of Nassau's Government House. Photo by Robert Karma on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Meanwhile, in the Bahamas, more than 3,000 people have signed a petition advocating for removal of the statue of Christopher Columbus, which looms over the front steps of Nassau's Government House.
A petition in Trinidad and Tobago agitating for the removal of two Columbus statues, explains:
We must face the fact […] that we continue to publicly glorify the murderous colonizer who initiated two of the greatest crimes in human history: the genocide of the Indigenous people of the Caribbean and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, both of which are at the root of the racial injustice that our generation is protesting today.
Musician and actor Nickolai Salcedo, who publicly shared the petition on his Facebook page, asked:
Hey wouldn’t it be a cool bit of foresight if instead of waiting for a mob to tear down the statue of Columbus in [Port of Spain], the government was to preemptively remove it followed by removing any homages to our colonial past? […]
Our society […] still has monuments […] that literally litter and stain our landscape. Time for these monuments to the bloodthirsty to meet their blind dates; the sledgehammer of justice.
We can't pick and choose history, this is a significant part of history — Keep it, not glorify it — attach the correct story to it — hostile takeovers must always be remembered for the damage they are responsible for.
Journalist Judy Raymond, however, commenting on the removal of the Milligan statue, read the pulse of the matter very accurately:
[People] see a statue & assume that must be a great man. A plaque on an empty plinth might be more appropriate & useful. This is a discussion about visual memory.
Two white protestors display a sign reading “Silence is not an option”, as part of the George Floyd protests that took place in Washington D.C. on May 30, 2020. Photo by Victoria Pickering on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
In the Caribbean, Floyd's death has prompted widespread online discussion about the region's own complicated race relations. In Trinidad and Tobago, this has been fuelled by disrespectful remarks from business owners and others widely regarded to occupy positions of privilege in society.
A key point of contention is the trotting out of the phrase “All Lives Matter” in response to expressions of support for the “Black Lives Matter” movement, with many older white or “white-adjacent” Trinbagonians failing to recognise how the phrase — which many of them interpret to be unifying or all-encompassing — is in fact just another form of belittlement.
Now, two young Trinbagonians, Anya Quesnel and New York-based Charlie Reid, have posted their thoughts about the issue, holding up a mirror to their community to show them the ways in which they participate in racism, in the hope that self-examination will inspire them to use their privilege to create equity. What is ‘white privilege'?
Recalling an incident in which his mother was given a delivery of pizza on trust because she had no cash with which to pay at the time of delivery, Reid defines white privilege this way:
Though your life may be chock-full with struggle, though you may have worked honest and hard for every cent you’ve ever earned, the colour of your skin has not been something that has significantly made your life harder. Your whiteness has not been something you must compensate for. Your whiteness has not caused you grave trauma. And if for some unique reason — in a Trinidadian context — your whiteness has caused you discomfort, never will it be comparable to the trauma our non-white brothers and sisters experience and have experienced.
In the Trinidad and Tobago context, however, Reid has noticed that privilege is closely intertwined with nepotism, which he says “has mated with race to evolve into this hybrid of white privilege that blows the white privilege I experience and have witnessed in America totally out of the water”. The problem with ‘not seeing colour’
In a multiethnic society like Trinidad and Tobago, diversity is visible. Quesnel put it into historical context:
One should never be looking at any part of Trininess without nuance and respect for the complexity of what it means to be a post-colonial (not decolonized) nation. […] By claiming that ‘we doh see colour, we doh see race’, we are ignoring that certain bodies are marked differently to others, and to harmful ends. When you tell your Black friends that you do not ‘see them as black’ you are 1) already displaying your assumption that blackness is inherently a ‘bad thing’, 2) you are invalidating the lived experiences of that friend that have been shaped by their blackness (as yours have been shaped by your whiteness). You are not being racist when you acknowledge that race exists. You are being racist when you fail to acknowledge your own prejudices.
Colour blindness is erasure. By not ‘seeing’ the colour of a person’s skin, you are not acknowledging their hurdles and your privileges. And so, stop being blind. If you are white, see your whiteness, see your neighbor’s blackness, see all the colours in between, celebrate it, witness it, and most importantly, take responsibility for the way the world treats you as a result of it. If you cannot see how the world treats you differently — that’s where your homework begins. Deal with the discomfort
Part of the process is having difficult conversations and confronting stark, often unpleasant realities. Quesnel's advice?
Sit with that discomfort. Ask why. Know that that your life is always, always, shaped by the privileges you have been afforded because of your whiteness.
Asserting that “reverse racism does not exist”, Reid added:
Perhaps, as a white Trini, you did in fact experience discomfort or harassment because of your whiteness. In Trinidad, as a racial minority, I have experienced hostility due to the colour of my skin [but] the cost of the discomfort that I experienced was inconceivably small to the cost people of colour experience due to racism and racist systems. So, we must discuss and continuously call out the systems at play. The issue of culture
In a multicultural space where claiming ownership of culture can get tricky, Quesnel challenged people to walk the talk:
Listen now. Let us be very aware of where the Trini ‘culture’ we parade so proudly came from: struggle. Specifically the struggle of black and brown Trinis to claim a space in the colonized society. […] If we so proud to be Trini to the bone why we bad talk public schools, send our children to private schools in the west when some of us sitting on money we could funnel into reforming public school education and bettering public facilities? Show that T&T pride by investing at home, by investing in home. Loving where you come from is more than patriotic talk for social capital. The language of race
Both young people were cognisant of the fact that the ways in which race is spoken about matters. Whether it's the use of pejorative terminology, denial that racism and colour-based social separation exists, or discussing sensitive issues like crime in terms of race, words have power.
Given that one of the most beloved lines in the country's national anthem is “Here every creed and race find an equal place”, Quesnel advised people to educate themselves and engage in dialogue:
Know YOUR history. Sit with the discomfort, rage, confusion that kind of work and introspection does. We need to examine and reimagine the ‘place’ every creed and race [is] trying to find equality in. […] If we cannot talk about the legacies of trauma, plundering, violence, genocide and prejudice that are ever present in our day to day- there will be no equality. If the art, voices, feelings, experiences and dreams of Black people are devalued constantly, there will be no equality.
Reid, who admitted he was struggling with “how to say this all perfectly” and conscious of not wanting to make himself “the center of this discourse”, admitted that he did once think of racism “as this bad thing that black people face”:
As I became more educated, I thought of racism as this bad thing that affects all people of colour, and not whites, and as a white person, it was my job not to be ignorant and make it harder for them. Today, I see racism as an issue that white people have. […] This is […] not to put white people at the center of this narrative, but rather to put white people at the center of accountability. […]
The time has long come for us as white people, especially as white Trinis, to talk about racism, as uncomfortable as it may be. It is not enough to say to yourself, ‘But I’m not racist.’ As — a golden tidbit — you are. We all are. I am. We are racist by the very fact that we operate and exist and benefit from the systems that have long favored our whiteness. Uprooting this will take lifetimes of concerted efforts. And people of colour have had enough. It’s time for us in our whiteness to say something, do something, fix something — fix it.
Protestors at the Black Lives Matter protest in Port of Spain, Trinidad, June 8, 2020. Photo by Jada Steuart, used with permission.
The horrific killing of George Floyd, an African American man who died from asphyxiation after a white police officer consistently pressed on his neck in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, has been the catalyst for putting the concerns of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement back on the front burner.
Protestors at the second Black Lives Matter demonstration at the Queen's Park Savannah in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Photo by Ashley Thompson, used with permission.
BLM's mandate to campaign against violence and systemic anti-black racism which manifests dangerously in acts of police brutality have inspired similar protests around the world.
On June 8, more than 500 people joined in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter by demonstrating in front of the United States Embassy in Port of Spain. It was the second public protest on the issue in four days, with this one reportedly being more heated than its predecessor, though certain segments of society remained antagonistic toward the cause.
“No justice, no peace,” were the words echoed as protestors assembled in the Queen's Park Savannah. Drivers passing along the perimeter of the city's main green space held their hands in fists out of cars, sounded their horns, and shouted the slogan “Black Lives Matter” in solidarity not only with African Americans, but also in acknowledgment of the deep-seated racism still festering under the surface of Trinidad and Tobago's multicultural society.
While there were altercations with the police, mainly over lack of consent with regard to an officer filming protestors, the protest was peaceful and harmonious overall. For the most part, protestors practised proper social distancing protocols, which were further enforced by the police present.
In fact, US Ambassador Joseph Mondello spent some time talking with protestors. He commended everyone who turned out for their message — and for wearing masks and practising safe social distancing.
Demonstrators at the Black Lives Matter protest in Port of Spain, Trinidad, June 8, 2020. Photo by Jada Steuart, used with permission.
In the wake of Floyd's death, discussions about race have dominated social media in Trinidad and Tobago, fuelled by insensitive remarks made by business owners like Gerald Aboud, whose Facebook comments telling black people to change their mindset were widely deemed racist. The consistent tone-deafness displayed by Aboud and several others has prompted calls for boycotts of their businesses, the decision by black entrepreneurs to pull their products from these stores and the creation of lists of black-owned businessesshared on social media.
At the protest, Aboud's name was seen multiple times on signs and placards:
The placard reads, “Dear Gerald Aboud, I did not steal my sneakers. Sincerely, ‘The Blacks.’ Photo by Jada Steuart, used with permission.
In a country that prides itself on equality and unity — the national anthem, after all, proclaims, “Here every creed and race find an equal place” — it is telling how much the #BlackLivesMatter movement has triggered such a response.
There is no disputing, however, that racism thrives in Trinidad and Tobago, in a multitude of ways: subtle or sometimes blatant racial tensions between different ethnicities, institutionalised racism that has traditionally made it harder for black people to thrive economically, and the fact that the majority of the country's wealth lies in the hands of the one percent.
Demonstrators on stilts, honouring the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival character of the Moko Jumbie (a tradition that originated from West Africa), at the Black Lives Matter protest in Port of Spain, Trinidad, June 8, 2020. Photo by Jada Steuart, used with permission.
As a postcolonial society, the issue of race is an integral part of Trinidad and Tobago's history; racist attitudes can be cross-generational.
Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, arguably the country's biggest national festival, is one example of this. Although its modern incarnation may look like a glorious street party, some Carnival bands remain segregated by class and colour. The festival's origins were rooted in rebellion against colonial authorities.
The inequitable systems Trinidad and Tobago inherited from Great Britain post-independence have not been completely dismantled. Many of those structures still cast a long and imposing shadow on the lives of black people, but if we are to judge by the turnout at the June 8 protest, young people especially no longer seem prepared to look away.
While the majority of the turnout was people of African descent, there were other people of colour and white Trinidadians present as well, coming together through a global movement aimed at challenging the systems that keep the wheels of racism turning.
They are speaking with their voices and their wallets, and they seem ready to have the tough discussions necessary for true equality to emerge. Many are also sharing resources, educating others about black history to foster greater understanding:
Groups are calling out racial injustice at home and abroad
Posted 5 June 2020 “Question your internalized racism” by Nicaraguan artist Vero Garabatos on Facebook, used with permission.
Indigenous and black Central Americans expressed solidarity online for the killing of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by four police officers in Minnesota, United States. In Central America, Afro-descendants and indigenous communities are raising awareness for their own suffering due to racism and violent state forces, particularly in countries with sizeable white or mestizo populations, such as Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Black Central Americans — who are mainly Garifuna and Creole communities — mostly live on the region's Caribbean coast. For centuries, however, their inclusion in Central American societies has been minimal, if not exclusionary, according to historians. For example, black people were legally prohibited from immigrating to El Salvador from 1933 to the 1980s.
Paul Joseph López Oro, a doctoral candidate in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas, argues that black Central Americans are alienated in Central American countries where ‘mestizaje‘ — people whose ancestry are mixed between white and indigenous — is still a prevailing ideal.
Until today, indigenous and black people — often at the frontlines of environmental defense — are dispossessed of their lands, harassed, or killed. Impunity is prevalent for these crimes. Calls for justice at home and abroad
Costa Rica's Vice-President Epsy Campbell Barr has condemned the killing of George Floyd on May 30 and called on the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to produce a special report on all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, afro-phobia and related intolerance against African-American citizens. She continued to tweet in support of Black Lives Matter protests in the United States.
No podemos guardar silencio y ser cómplices de la injusticia, de la brutalidad y del dolor. Extiendo mi profunda admiración a todas las personas que marchan y levantan los ideales de la justicia, de la igualdad y del amor #BlackLivesMatter#BlackLivesMatterCR#GeorgeFloydpic.twitter.com/15lAROvjDH
We cannot keep silence and be accomplices of injustice, brutality and pain. I extend my profound admiration for all the people who are marching and highlighting the ideals of justice, equality and love. #BlackLivesMatter#BlackLivesMatterCR#GeorgeFloyd
Also in Costa Rica, an Afro-Costa Rican, feminist and anti-racist organization CostaRica Afro organized a zoom meeting to demonstrate against racism in the world.
More than 500 people virtually demonstrated in Costa Rica against racism in the world. The initiative was promoted by @CostaRicaAfro #BlackLivesMatter#BlackOutTuesday
In Guatemala, Indigenous communities have suffered genocide at the hands of state forces during counter-insurgency operations between 1960 and 1996. UN special rapporteur for indigenous rights, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, noted that Guatemala suffers from structural discrimination and exclusion of indigenous peoples. Indigenous communities have immediately expressed their solidarity with events happening in the United States and invited Guatemalans to reflect on racist dynamics within Guatemala.
Maya Kakchiquel columnist and anthropologist from Guatemala, Sandra Batz, tweeted as early as May 27 about George Floyd's death.
George Floyd fue asesinado, el racismo fue el móvil de este crimen. Las personas racializadas vivimos el abuso y la impunidad de los Estados racistas, que se vuelcan en contra de nuestras vidas en lugar de protegerlas.
George Floyd was murdered and racism was the motive of that crime. We people of color live the abuse and impunity of racist States, which turn their backs on our lives instead of protecting us.
A few days later, Batz wrote an opinion piece that starts with “racism kills,” stating that:
It is easier to perceive the racism of others, that which is exercised in other countries, than one's own, than that which is practiced as a nation against a majority native population, who are despised and killed, yes, killed. Illustrator Sucely Puluc, who is indigenous Maya K'iche’ and Kaqchikel, expressed that she wants the movements against racism to have lasting effects and not be an online trend.
“We have denounced racism all our lives. Its not only a #trend.” Indigenous Maya K'iche’ human rights defender Andrea Ixchíu created Black Lives Matter solidarity posters. Art by Andrea Ixchíu, used with permission.
Honduran Garifuna, mixed descendants of African and Amerindian Arawak, live under frequent attacks, according to Garifuna rights organization, OFRANEH. Central American News collected the data:
In Honduras alone, 105 violent acts were committed against the Garifuna people between 2008 and 2019, including murders, judicial threats, forced displacement, sexual violence and disappearances, according to OFRANEH. That makes for nearly one violent occurrence per month (0.8) in a community of 43,111 people.
For years OFRANEH, led by Miriam Miranda, has called for an end to the killings of Garifuna people. Miranda also tweeted with regards to U.S. events:
La juventud está haciendo un llamado para que se detenga esa barbarie que se comete contra lxs negrxs en ese país que se dice ejemplo de la “democracia”. Ese es un sistema racista, depredador y asesino al que han vendido en todo el planeta como lo mejor del mundo para vivir. pic.twitter.com/CkQtILgaOP
The youth is calling out so that the barabarity committed against black people in that country, a so-called example of “democracy,” is stopped. It's a racist, predatory and murderous system that they have been selling all over the planet as the best place on earth to live.
Rally organized by VOX on 03.06.2018 Photo credit: Vox España/Flickr, public domain.
As Spain gradually eases coronavirus restrictions, 6000 cars packed into central Madrid to call for the resignation of President Pedro Sánchez and his ministers.
Yelling slogans like “freedom”, “resign”, and “Sanchez leave now”, and bearing Spanish flags and masks, protesters came out against the government's handling of the pandemic. They called for a return to individual freedoms and a reopening of the economy to avoid turning Spain into a “Third World” country.
The demonstration, which was called by extreme right-wing party VOX, was held with citizens using their vehicles to ensure compliance with mandatory safety distances during the pandemic. Even so, many broke these measures by leaving their cars.
In the most recent general election on 10 November 2019, VOX won 52 seats and became the third-largest force in the Spanish Parliament. The party is growing and is accused of using nationalist, racist and anti-feminist rhetoric to push its political messaging. Some of the measures it drafted in its 2019 electoral manifesto included outlawing political parties that “pursue the destruction of the territorial unity of the nation”, deporting illegal immigrants and excluding immigrants from the national health system, closing mosques, repealing the law on gender violence, banning abortions, and creating a Ministry for Families to protect “the natural family”.
Demonstrators drove through central areas of Madrid where the wealthiest VOX supporters live. In Plaza de Colón, a convertible bus was set up where the leaders of VOX, including party leader Santiago Abascal, were present.
Confinement measures were relaxed on 11 May in the hard-hit capital and small businesses could partially reopen under strict safety measures. However, the city is still only slowly opening up. VOX's demonstration caused controversy due to the danger posed by crowds, the pollution caused by thousands of cars, the party-like atmosphere, and Abascal’s calls for all Spaniards to “take to the streets” during the ongoing pandemic. There was also tension when a journalist from La Razón was attacked by some of the demonstrators, and other journalists from RTVE were harassed.
"Maricones, comunistas" Esto es lo que ha tenido que soportar este periodista de @rtve. No hace tanto veíamos imágenes parecidas con otras banderas y nos llevábamos las manos a la cabeza. Quién reclama libertad y no la ejerce sólo quiere imponer su modelo de sociedad. pic.twitter.com/r988J8XADm — David Holguín (@DSHolguin) May 23, 2020
” Queers, communists.”
This is what this journalist from @rtve had to endure. Not so long ago, we saw similar images with other flags and we had our hands on our heads.
Those who claim freedom and do not practice it only want to impose their model of society
The right to protest is written in the constitution, but the controversy arises from the exceptional situation in which the whole world finds itself. At the time of writing, Spain has 287,740 confirmed cases and 27,133 deaths from COVID-19.
This procession of cars was the high point of a number of anti-government protests that began on 14 May in the Salamanca neighbourhood where over 70% of residents voted for right-wing and conservative parties in the last general election. Since then, every day at 9 pm, a number of citizens have taken to the streets or their balconies to bang pots and pans, demanding the government leader's resignation — making the already tense political situation even worse.
Since Pedro Sánchez was sworn in as president on 7 January 2020, he began forming a coalition government with leftist party Unidas Podemos. In response, the Spanish right-wing parties began to harden its anti-government rhetoric. On social networks, the ultra-right is calling the government and its members “putschists“, “illegitimate”, and even “thugs“.
On Twitter many people reacted against VOX's protest, especially criticizing the right-wing party's use of the Spanish flag, which many described as a misappropriation of a national symbol for party interests. This complaint was also leveled against the party during the 2015 election when party propaganda included the national flag.
Es vergonzoso el uso d bandera española por manifestantes de Vox, en vez de la suya, verde. Lograrán que muchos españoles, que no son de Vox, vean la bandera española como símbolo faccioso de ultraderecha ("efecto Azor") https://t.co/ipei868u8s vía @expansioncom — Manuel Conthe (@mconthe) May 23, 2020
The use of the Spanish flag by Vox protesters, instead of their own green one, is shameful. They will make many Spaniards, who are not with Vox, see the Spanish flag as an extreme right-wing factional symbol (“Azor effect”)
However, other well-known people, such as the former goalkeeper of the Spanish national team, Pepe Reina, supported the protests.
Ah! Pues parece que ha salido gentecilla a la calle, no??🤝👏🏻
Ah! So, it looks like the common people are out on the street, doesn't it? But there were also critical voices pointing to a contradiction between VOX's opposition to the large feminist demonstration on 8 March and their holding of a similar public event now. Vox el 8M vs Vox hoy #ElVirusSoisVoxotrospic.twitter.com/fgNP1HwnEq — salfuman (@sulfatador) May 23, 2020
Vox on 8 March vs Vox now
Several members of Congress from political parties Más País, Unidas Podemos and Esquerra Republicana, respectively, also gave their opinions on Twitter:
La patria es cuidarnos. Nada que ver con el desfile de la insolidaridad de los señoritos. pic.twitter.com/uOpjx9UD4Y
